Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day... Character edition!

First, Happy Mother's Day to my own mother!

She said I'd write books when I was just a little kid. I argued she was wrong for about 30 years and finally gave in and started writing. I haven't looked back. Love you, Mom.

So what's this about Characters?

Well, literary agent Mary Kole back in (I think) 2010 first noted the high mortality rate of parents in young adult literature.

I kind of scratched my head (and worried) at the time, because all my characters had parents. Some were more present than others, but they were there.

Whether it's the idealistic, leader-parents of The Truth About Faking, whose ideals manage to get them in hot water and embarrass their daughter, main character Harley, to no end.

Or the kind but somewhat oblivious parents of Anna in the Dragonfly series, who (justifiably) trust their daughter, but have no clue all the drama she's juggling.

Today, I'm highlighting my favorite mother-daughter relationship--that of Ashley and her mom Gretchen in The Truth About Letting Go.

They both tragically lose a man they love and idealize before the story opens, and they deal with it in very different ways. Ashley fights; Gretchen withdraws.

Ashley, despite her anger and fighting, finds Jordan, her promise of a future love. Gretchen doesn't have that promise--although I threw in the potential in the figure of charming, understanding Eric (never Rick) James.

So here's the picture excerpt taken from Letting Go. I hope you enjoy it, and consider picking up a copy of the book and letting me know what you think!


Print copies on Createspace | Amazon

Have a wonderful day, reader- and writer-friends~ <3

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Some lovely books! I avoid the 'kill off the parents' by setting most of my books in an historical period when times were tough. :0)

Pat Hatt said...

Noticed the morality rate too and hope a great day is had by you.

LTM said...

LOL--oh, Carole Ann, you know the one historical I wrote (ROUGE), the parents follow Kole's model. Ahh, I guess it takes all kinds of situations to tell stories~ :D <3